Shadowy areas are a heat-absorbing liability, but losing them may mess with the insects’ mating Many dragonflies zip through the air with their translucent wings painted in an array of dark spots and bands. But — for males at least — those dapper decorations could soon fall out of styleContinue Reading
A withered old male hornet shows that repeat invasions are the not-so-new normal Fingers crossed for finding nothing: July marks the main trapping season to check for Asian giant hornets still infesting Washington state. The first of these invasive hornets found in North America in 2021, in June, was probablyContinue Reading
A study supports the idea that domestication has wired dogs’ brains for communicating with people Wiggles and wobbles and a powerful pull toward people — that’s what 8-week-old puppies are made of. From an early age, dogs outpace wolves at engaging with and interpreting cues from humans, even if theContinue Reading
The smallest mammal in the ocean doesn’t rely on blubber or a large body to keep toasty Sea otters’ secret to staying warm isn’t in thick stores of blubber. It’s in their muscles. Leaks in the energy-generating parts of muscle cells help otters maintain a resting metabolism three times asContinue Reading
Scientists grew nearly defect-free fibers of frozen water with counterintuitive properties. Try to bend an icicle and it’ll snap in two. With its tendency to crack into shards, ice’s reputation for being stiff and brittle seems well-established. But thin, pristine threads of ice are bendy and elastic, scientists report inContinue Reading
Analysis of a rare, ancient star suggests a new birthplace for elements like uranium and silver Violent explosions of massive, magnetized stars may forge most of the universe’s heavy elements, such as silver and uranium. These r-process elements, which include half of all elements heavier than iron, are also producedContinue Reading
The Deep Space Atomic Clock could help spacecraft reach distant destinations on their own An atomic clock that could transform deep-space travel has successfully completed its first test run in space. NASA’s Deep Space Atomic Clock, which launched on a satellite in June 2019, outperformed all other clocks in spaceContinue Reading
An elusive source of ripples in spacetime has finally been found Caught in a fatal inward spiral, a neutron star met its end when a black hole swallowed it whole. Gravitational ripples from that collision spread outward through the cosmos, eventually reaching Earth. The detection of those waves marks theContinue Reading
Sparse, spindly scales and a waxy membrane coating are behind the insect’s transparency. Most butterflies sport colorful, eye-catching patterns on their wings. But some species, like the glasswing butterfly, use mostly transparent wings to hide in plain sight. To figure out how these Central American butterflies go incognito, researchers putContinue Reading
A farmer living near Ismailia in Egypt has uncovered a 2,600-year-old stela erected by pharaoh Apries, who ruled from about 589 B.C., to 570 B.C., the Egyptian antiquities ministry reported. The farmer found this ancient slab of sandstone while preparing his land for cultivation, about 62 miles (100 kilometers) northeastContinue Reading